UCI ranked 16th best education value in nation

IRVINE – Orange County's only UC campus has been ranked the 16th best value among U.S. public colleges by personal finance magazine Kiplinger, behind four other University of California campuses.

UC Irvine, along with Los Angeles, Berkeley, San Diego and Santa Barbara, landed spots in the magazine's top 20 list despite a 72 percent increase in tuition over the past five years. The magazine assessed colleges' value using a weighted formula that examined admission and graduation rates, tuition costs, financial aid and student debt data, among other factors.

"Fortunately, most students don't pay the shocking sticker prices" for a UC education, Kiplinger said in its report. "UC schools offset their high cost with liberal financial aid."

"Regardless of the tuition increases, you're getting probably one of the best educations in the world," said Ria Carlson, UC Irvine's associate vice chancellor for communications. "There's a lot to crow about here, and it's great for Orange County – you really have a world-class institution at your doorstep."

UC Irvine moved up six spots in this year's Kiplinger best-value ranking; it was ranked 22nd last year.

The full report is on newsstands now.

Among the four UC campuses that bested UC Irvine this year, UCLA moved up three spots to No. 6, UC Berkeley dropped one spot to No. 8, UC San Diego held steady at No. 10 and UC Santa Barbara moved up three spots to No. 14.

The California State University campuses that made Kiplinger's top 100 list were: Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (No. 40), San Diego State (No. 77), Cal State Long Beach (No. 82) and Cal Poly Pomona (No. 89).

Kiplinger's top-ranked U.S. public colleges were the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (No. 1), University of Virginia (No. 2) and University of Florida (No. 3).

Among private U.S. colleges, which Kiplinger ranked separately, the top-value honors went to Yale (No. 1), Rice (No. 2) and Princeton (No. 3).